I came up with this question right after I wanted to take apart a microwave to see why it wasn’t heating anything before I remembered that that’s a very, VERY bad idea
- Laser / LED printers can blind you and may have larger capacitors.
- Old CRT style TVs / Monitors can get you if not discharged correctly.
Is it true they can hold on to a charge for decades? I was told that but it seemed unlikely.
That is my understanding. I remember hearing stories about dudes visiting a dump or whatever, kicking through the screen of a CRT and getting zapped like fuck
Unlikely. Even the best capacitors would discharge through leakage in 5 or 10 minutes.
I’m treating them like guns. Assume they’re loaded until you prove otherwise.
The coating on the inside of the tube can behave like a Leyden jar caps can accumulate charge over time even without an obvious power source.
why don’t you google that?
Do you ever find that sometimes when you intervene in to other people’s conversations to pull out some of your best absolute cracker lines like “why don’t you google that?” that people just don’t react properly at all? Like you’d expect an appropriate response like some light cheering and maybe lifting you up on their shoulders and handing you a medal and at least a couple of trophies. You know, something befitting of your incisive and insightful contributions, and instead they just kinda stop talking to you? That’s so weird huh?
Especially on a forum-style network dedicated to discussion 🙈
No I expect everyone not to be lazy fucks and do some basic research on one liner facts
The original question I see as a useful conversation where a simple search would probably not give as valuable resultes.
Where simple facts like “how long does a crt tube old a charge” is a Google thing.
Why don’t you Google why people don’t Google things instead of asking why they don’t Google it? It’s pretty hypocritical of you to ask that without putting in the research.
That’s the joke.
Don’t keep us hanging. Google it for us.
Anything with large capacitors?
Word for word my answer
And people don’t realize how long they can hold power after the device has been “off”.
Edit - I forgot to add my thing! A good example of something that doesn’t sound scary is a TV, but it has large capacitors that can end you (or make a bad day).
Not a large capacitor in my case, but I took apart my old camera after it stopped working, and accidentally touched the capacitor for the flash. A memorable moment.
If you’re gonna take a washing machine apart and you cut all the wires, make sure you cut the main electrical plug off as well or your dumbass son (me) will plug it in and electrocute himself with it.
and electrocute himself with it.
Um, aktschully, you shocked yourself. If you electrocuted yourself, you would be dead.
WAIT. UNLESS YOU DID DIE. DOES THAT MAKE YOU A GHOST?!!! A GHOST THAT CAN TYPE ON KEYBOARDS!!! AMAZING!!!
Yes, I am a ghost, I don’t type I just yell at it I till something happens, it’s exhausting.
You poor thing… :(
It’s not all bad tho, fuckin with people is fun.
Lol, I bet.
You are doing it the hard way. You can shrink yourself down and enter the keyboard. By flying underneath the key membranes you can short out the contacts and make the keys trigger. So I’ve heard.
I heard once that old smoke detectors have some radioactive isotopes in them. Not sure how true or dangerous but sounds bad.
Current smoke detectors still do, and usually have some warning on them stating such.
Ionization chamber smoke detectors have a tiny grain of Americium in them, which is radioactive. However, the radiation is almost entirely alpha particles which are relatively low risk as they don’t penetrate skin particularly well.
They are also still sold, though you should buy the other kind (which use light beams instead) because they’re significantly better at their jobs.
I forget the details, but each design has a use-case.
Though for most people, the newer design is likely the better choice.
They’re low risk unless you ingest them, because then they’re hitting internal organs directly.
Also if you pool the Americium from 100 detectors together they become pretty dangerous.
Ahhhh gold old nuclear boyscout…
If it had warnings about not opening it, or not containing user serviceable parts, don’t fuck with it.
Eh, I’m not sure about that broad. Macbooks say not to open them because “reasons”, but most items in there can be easily repaired
Actually not. They CAN be repaired, but are a nightmare of soldered and glued shit. The only apple thing I own (Linux/Android/Win user) is an iPad, which admittedly is a sweet performer, and iPads are just plain better tablets, but no way I’m cracking it open. I’ve replaced Android screens, repaired laptops, but fuck apple. Not because of danger, but because breakage is almost guaranteed on newer stuff.
Of course I understand caution with ⚡️, but just about everything has a ‘do not open’ label on it (in the litigous US anyway). Do we not care about right to repair?
I thought in the context of the question it was obvious what I’m referring to.
'Twas not, friend.
“As an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, FUCK. THAT.”
– Me and my spouse.
P.S. Fuck John Deere.
This very much depends on your level of skill, experience and awareness of the dunning-kruger effect.
So basically, go for it?
This very much depends on your tolerance for ragrets.
[peels back t-shirt to display neck tattoo]
Since dunning-kruger isn’t valid, we’re halfway there!
Old CRT monitors. Particularly if they’ve been recently unplugged. There’s a cable in there my old teacher used to call “the superman cable”.
Anything connected to your garage door.
That spring will fucking kill you.
This whole thread is making me anxious
Same
Batteries
Old arcade machines. Giant capacitors + little knowledge on the subject = a very bad time.
As with anything it can be done safely if you know how. People still play those and they obviously need repairs/maintenance sometimes.
Desktop computer power supplies. Don’t open them.
BS. Just drain capacitors. I’ve repaired a few (worthwhile ones) by replacing caps. You just need to know how. As with anything, read up.
How else am I supposed to put the magic smoke back in?
kids today don’t know about the scary suction cup on crts
Holy shit, how has no one mentioned rechargable batteries?
Lithium Ion batteries, commonly used in phones and the like, rapidly catches fire and emits acidic smoke that will melt your lungs when the battery is punctured.
I too was going to say microwave before reading the post body. Honestly though anything with a large capacitor, I can’t give you examples unfortunately because I study physics not electrical engineering but some of those fat fucking capacitors will fry you and they hold their charge.
